Hierarchical fusion of machine learning algorithms in indoor positioning and localization

Wi-Fi-based indoor positioning offers significant opportunities for numerous applications. Examining the Wi-Fi positioning systems, it was observed that hundreds of variables were used even when variable reduction was applied. This reveals a structure that is difficult to repeat and is far from producing a common solution for real-life applications. It aims to create a common and standardized dataset for indoor positioning and localization and present a system that can perform estimations using this dataset. To that end, machine learning (ML) methods are compared and the results of successful methods with hierarchical inclusion are then investigated. Further, new features are generated according to the measurement point obtained from the dataset. Subsequently, learning models are selected according to the performance metrics for the estimation of location and position. These learning models are then fused hierarchically using deductive reasoning. Using the proposed method, estimation of location and position has proved to be more successful by using fewer variables than the current studies. This paper, thus, identifies a lack of applicability present in the research community and solves it using the proposed method. It suggests that the proposed method results in a significant improvement for the estimation of floor and longitude. © 2019 by the authors